Now and Forever
by Vain x Life Poetess
Summary: Mary gets a second chance at happiness. Crossover with Nightmare Before Christmas & prequel to Rose Petals and tie in w/Love will set us free and I'll keep you safe.


**A/N: This is a prequel of my previous story where Sally finds out that she is Mary Tudor. This tells her point of view from the time of her rebirth to the events of the Nightmare Before Christmas. I have always been into Tudor history and I absolutely love this movie and the idea of Mary being Sally came to me while I was watching this movie because they seem so alike. They are both so sad and beautiful, and have red hair and I can just imagine the actress who played Mary as Sally in a live-action movie.**

* * *

 _"Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy."_  
 _~Little Women by Louisa May Alcott_

Where am I? What's this? "Dear Sally, welcome to the world of the living."

Sally? Is that my name? What an obvious thing to ask. Of course it is! But then … why am I here? I recall dying. I recall screaming my sister's name. Sister … where is she? "Bess … my names' Bess?" It didn't come out the way I wanted to. Then again, when has everything come the way I wanted to? I asked myself.

The good doctor, as I can surmise by his lab coat, tells me that's not my name. "Your name doesn't matter anymore." He tells me after I asked him what it was. "You are mine now child, that is all that should matter."

But it doesn't quiet my curiosity. I want to know more. I want to know who I am. Where I came from? The good doctor doesn't let me go out unless he tells me I have to. For some recreational exercise or something of the sort. I sigh and rest my head on my hand, my elbow on the window. Every year is the same in Halloween Town and I cannot help but be in awe of this Jack. He is not called the Pumpkin King for nothing.

I ask Igor who was he. He snickers. "Mistress should not ask Igor such questions. Master will get angry."

"Come on Igor, what he doesn't know won't make him angry. Who's he really?"

Igor hesitated but finally gave in. "Nobody really knows. He doesn't speak much about his past. The last time somebody asked him that question, Pumpkin King got really mad. Really, really, really-"

"Ok, Igor, I get the picture." I sigh again. "Perhaps all someone needs to do is ask him nicely or haunt him so he will finally give it up."

"Pumpkin King doesn't give up easily lady. He is very persistent and what he wants, he gets. But he is also very melancholy."

Odd. I had heard that word once. I let it drop for many years until one Halloween I couldn't. The excitement that this was going to be the biggest, baddest Halloween ever got me super thrilled and I knew I had to escape this wretched place so I used what I knew best: My sweet character and ability to lie to make my master fall asleep by slipping deadly nightshade into his soup.

When I got out, everyone was singing and of course I participated. "I am the night that screams in the wind." I turned my head when the singer turned its head to me and my reddish brown hair flew as if by magic to make his point. Then he came. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King with a pumpkin on his head and set himself on fire then dived into the large well of acid and came out with everyone waving his hands and applauding him after it was all over.

"We've done it!" Everyone cheered.

"Yes, we did." I said to myself and one of the witches next to me slapped my back, telling me that if only the doctor had let me loose in the mortal world, I would have made this holiday legendary. Oh, to go up there, now that would be great. There is so much I wanted to explore and I can't help myself. I've always been curious and the doctor let it slip that this is something that was always obvious of me when I was alive.

Alive. The word sounds so odd. But I guess it is normal since I am not dead but not exactly alive either. Though I wouldn't call myself an undead because I don't suck the blood out of the living and turn them into vampires or walking zombies in the case of the latter. But I do feel different, much like Jack –I know realize- feels when I hear him lamenting his tired, old repetitive life.

"Oh Jack if you only knew how you're not the only one." I say and go back to the doctor's castle to pick up my arm.

* * *

 _I feel very nervous about today, wearing purple gown and parliamentary state robes, I walk on foot to the Abbey. Today is the day where I reclaim my birthright. When I finally become what I was always meant to be: Queen of England._

 _And as I prostrate myself before the altar and lift myself so my ladies can take off my robes and replace them with new ones before I take my sit in the ancient throne chair where the stone of scone is; I think of the first would-be-queen of England. How proud she would be of me, to know that finally a woman was taking the position that was stolen from her centuries ago. As the canopy is placed above me and curtains are drawn to give me privacy to change and wipe the holy oils off my breast and head, I tell my ladies to put the parliamentary robes back on me and to free my head off the pearl diadem. Susan looks at me with a puzzling look. "Are you sure?" She asks._

 _I nod. "This is what I want." What my mother would've wanted. I think. Is to have that pearl diadem. But my mother was long gone, and this is not her day but mine. And if I'm going to rule this country, then I have to make it clear to everyone that I am not everyone's daughter and nobody's puppet, and most importantly of all, my own person and as such, my own mistress._

 _When the curtains are lifted, Gardiner tells the other Bishop to resume his speech and after he finishes the two asks me if I will uphold the ancient laws to which I say "Yes" then they direct their question to the people. "Do you accept this to be your lawful queen, Mary Tudor?" Everyone claps and answers in a loud cry "Yes, yes!" many times and then it comes._

 _The moment everyone has been waiting for. I catch a glimpse of my sister and my stepmother and cousin below. I can't quite discern them, but Bess and Meg look odd now as they watch the Bishop place (first) the crown of the Confessor on me, then another crown, and finally a crown I had made especially for me beset with jewels, pearls and other precious stones. Bess looks flushed, and I think at first that it is because she is not used to this much attention. But focusing my eyes on her, I realize it is not nervousness which takes over her but jealousy and it's the same for Meg. They both changed their tune so quickly._

 _Why? I shake these thoughts away. I must be deluding myself. After all that talk that Renard gave me earlier, I must have thought that some of the stuff he said was true because otherwise, why would I be seeing things that were not there? Bess and Meg loved me. They would never hurt me or use me to further their own ends like my father did._

 _'_ _I am losing it'._

 _After the banquet I retired to my private quarters, feeling satisfied and happier than I'd ever been in my life._

 _Today had been the start of a new era. "I will make you proud of me mama." I say to myself. All the stuff that I had done, would be erased. The curse that I had unleashed, would be no more when people look back at my reign they would say it started on this day._

 **~o~**

 _Strange._ I almost imagined myself in another person's memory. No –my brain tells me. It was you. Jack has another 'great' idea for Halloween except this time it involves stealing someone else's holiday. I have a bad feeling about this. I tell Jack all about it but he doesn't believe me.

"Jack this doesn't look at all like you. You look very different." I tell him, hoping against all hope to convince him but surprise for me, it doesn't. I know, my attempt at sarcasm is very lame. It's always been. I am not a witch or a decisive person like the other women in Halloween Town but I get by through my sweetness. I learned that is a powerful weapon and it helps you get more things done, especially when it comes to gaining someone else's trust and deceiving them.

I couldn't do that to Jack, thought. I had to find another way of helping him and the answer came to me when Ogey's children showed us Santa Claus. I never trusted that trio, I knew they were taking him to that awful man to be tortured.

I followed them and pulled the best trick in the book, using nothing but my wits and my looks, and my legs (literally). Well, at least one of them. Ogey might be the best incarnation of the Bogey man but he is a creep like most men. He sees something attractive and he falls for it. When he goes for my leg, I take that as my cue to go and free Santa Claus. He spots us quickly and now it's not just one prisoner he has to torture but two.

"You'll regret this! Jack will get you for this, you'll see! When he hears about this-" I'm cut off when the Mayor's big voice is heard throughout the Town, announcing Jack's death.

No! My mind screams. Jack can't be dead! He can't. If I could cry, I would. Jack. Oh Jack! Why did you have to do this?

Ogey laughs and at that moment as if by magic, Jack comes and frees us. He battles Ogey and wins, uncovering Ogey for the disgusting creature that he is and dropping all the insects into the lava.

"Mr. Santa Claus I'm terribly sorry… I-"

"The next time you get the urge to take over someone else's holiday, I'd listen to her. She's the only one with common sense in this insane asylum!" Santa screams and then tells Jack that there's still time to save Christmas and magically flies through the air to his dominions.

"Sally … How … why did you come here?" He asks me coming very close. I look down, almost embarrassed to admit my feelings to him.

"I had to save Santa Claus, I couldn't let you do it … I mean, I didn't want to see you in danger … I wanted to-"

"Save me?"

"Yes."

Our faces so near that we almost kiss, but our moment is interrupted by the Mayor and those three little kid monsters who come to our 'rescue'. After Santa restores Christmas and gives us a present of our own by making it snow, I go on the hill on the cemetery. No use staying behind. Jack is likely to forget what I did.

'All men are like that'. I say and it sounds so weird but a part of me remembers saying this not so long ago when I was with somebody whom I fell deeply in love.

Then something makes me turn my back. 'Maybe not all.' I smile at him as he starts to sing:

"My dearest friend if you don't mind. I'd like to join you by your side

"Where we can gaze into the stars …"

"And sit together, now and forever" I add singing with him, our voices becoming one.

"For it is plain as anyone can see we are simply meant to be." He takes my hands and we wrap our arms around each other and for the first time since I was pieced back together by the good doctor and brought back to life, I have my first true love's kiss.


End file.
